Honesty Enabled by Anonymity

Tired Parenting

So, last night I was helping the kiddo with his homework. Trying to help might be a more accurate description. He was a bit more tired than usual, and his attitude was definitely not where it needed to be, tired or not.

After spending an hour on a math sheet that, minus arguing and stalling, would have taken about 20 minutes, and his attitude still hadn’t improved, I had to put the brakes on the whole thing, and sent him to bed, telling him that I would wake him up early for school and we would finish the homework in the morning, after both of us agreed that we were deciding ahead of time to work on it with a better attitude.

He asked me if I would be able to wake up that early. Those innocent, valid questions pain my heart every time he asks one, because it feels like a confirmation of so many of my failings. I know that isn’t how he means it though, and I swallow my pride and power through those kinds of questions as best as I can. So I told him I would pull an all-nighter to make sure I was up and able to wake him up early to do it.

Then, middle of the night, he wakes up and throws up. Come morning, he feels queasy, and my eyes are burning from being tired, so I take another “morning booster pill”, and we start working on the homework. We got through his reading with no problem, but then he threw up again and I officially had to call him in.

Thursday is one of the craziest days of the week in our house. My mom has to take her mom to Dr. appointments all day, and it’s early release day at the kiddo’s school. Add being down to one car, and the sub needing to switch days at work to today, and it’s a great recipe for way too much going on. The hub is asleep, since he’s currently working nights.

So, there’s no one for me to go to and tag out and get some sleep. Not to mention the idiocy of going to “bed” at like 1:30 in the afternoon.

Still not sure how much longer I’ll make it today. My eyes are so grainy and tired.

Ummm…………….I hate to be the one to break it to you, but my oldest of 4 just recently turned 30 and still no normal sleep pattern or schedule. Maybe you’ll get lucky! LOL I think once we become mother’s, we can just forget about sleep for the rest of our lives. When they move out, you have to worry about whether they made it home last night and so on……………But, somehow we manage to survive. 🙂

Somehow I expected that kind of response. Parenting seems to be full of those “No, sorry, it actually doesn’t get better” moments. Which is funny, because it really does also genuinely get better! Ahh, the irony of parenting.

As a mother of a 19 year old, 7 year old and 2 year old, sleep deprivation is a way of life. Every morning is a struggle. I feel like a zombie parent most days. I feel like I fail at least one of them every day…not listening to the 7 year old rattle on about something he’s learned at school, or plopping the 2 year old in front of Curious George, rather than reading to her…or dismissing my 19 year old’s philosophical take on Post-Impressionist art with a disinterested, “Really? That’s interesting” comment.
Feeling like this is the rite of passage of being a parent, love. All of us with offspring, truly feel your pain.
Get some rest! Hope your kiddo feels better!
All my best to you and yours,
Tess